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Apple seeks SCOTUS help on patent abuse; hit with $2B suit

Apple, Google, and a number of other companies are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to make it easier to collect attorneys’ fees from patent holding companies that lose infringement suits, Bloomberg reports. Both Apple and Google have been sued more than 190 times in the past five years by patent assertion entities, often referred to as “patent trolls.” A favorable ruling for the tech companies would make it more risky for such entities to present “frivolous” patent lawsuits. Apple said it is currently facing 228 unresolved patent claims, and the company “employs two attorneys just to respond to letters that demand royalties.” The U.S. Patent Act says fees can be awarded “in exceptional cases,” which leaves room for interpretation. Two upcoming cases unrelated to Apple will have the Supreme Court justices considering patent litigation fee awards; two companies that defeated patent suits are seeking fee awards from those trials.

In related news, the Wall Street Journal reports that a German patent assertion entity has accused Apple of patent infringement and is claiming $2.12 billion in damages. IPCom GmbH has accused Apple of improperly using a technology that allows emergency calls to take precedence on mobile networks. The technology is mandatory for UTMS and LTE cellphone standards, IPCom claims.